How green was this decade?

The Sierra Club has put out a fun quiz to test your knowledge of the past decade, and the effects "green" living have had on it. If you'd like to take the quiz, go here ... and stop scrolling - the answers are listed below.


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compiled from www.sierraclub.org

1.The Hummer's demise signaled an end to an era of the gas-guzzling vehicle. Between 2007 and 2008, Hummer sales dropped by just over 50 percent. Sales plummeted 50.9 percent between 2007 and 2008. Sources: NYT and Autobloggreen.

2.In 2001, a Gallup poll found that 30 percent of Americans thought the seriousness of global warming was "exaggerated." In March 2009, that percentage had since increased. In March 2009, 41 percent of Americans thought the seriousness of global warming was exaggerated. Sources: Gallup.

3. In 2009, Gore's audiobook An Inconvenient Truth won a Grammy for best spoken word album, but it was read by Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon, and Blair Underwood. In 2006, Gore won an Oscar. In 2007, his network Current TV won a primetime Emmy. That same year he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

4. Congaree was established as a national park in 2003. Black Canyon of the Gunnison was established in 1999. Biscayne was 1980. And Saguaro was 1994. Other parks established in the 2000s include Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.


5.Which of these species definitely did not become extinct during the past decade? The Tooth Cave Pseudoscorpion. Click here for a gallery of ten species that became extinct during the 2000s. The Tooth Cave Pseudoscorpion is not extinct, but it has been on the U.S. endangered species list since 1988 due to habitat loss and urban development.


6.Who said "We're spending money on clean coal technology. Do you realize we've got 250 million years of coal?" Former president George W. Bush made the remark on June 8, 2005. Estimations on total coal energy supply vary, but even the most overly optimistic numbers aren't more than a few hundred years.


7.According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate of just over 11.2  percent per decade, relative to the 1979 to 2000 average. Here is the graph.


8.The 2000 Olympics were in Australia. In 2004, they were in Greece. In 2008, they took place in China. Of the three countries, Australia has the worst greenhouse-gas emissions per capita. The Aussies are near the top of the world's list in greenhouse-gas emissions per capita. Greece also has a relatively high per capita emissions rate. China's rate is one of the lowest. But China, thanks to its increasing use of coal-powered energy, is now believed to top the list for total greenhouse gas emissions.


9.In 2009, the rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest was much lower than in 2000. In 2009, Brazil reported rainforest deforestation at under 10,000 square kilometers. In 2000, Brazil reported that figure at just under 20,000 square kilometers. According to Mongabay.com,  "The reduction in Amazon deforestation comes a year after Brazil announced an ambitious plan to reduce forest loss by 70 percent by 2018 as part of its climate policy. Deforestation accounts for more than three-fifths of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 20 percent of emissions worldwide. Brazil is seeking billions of dollars from industrialized nations for its efforts to reduce deforestation."


10.In July 2000, gas prices were roughly $1.50 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. In November 2009, the national average was about $2.66 a gallon. Prices peaked above the $4 mark in July 2008.


For more green fun, check out other "How Green is my ..." quizzes at http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/

Recycling reminder

Christmas is Friday, and with its arrival - or departure, depending on how you look at it - comes lots of additional waste. Tons, in fact ... literally tons. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent, and trash created annually from gift wrap and shopping bags is about 4 million tons.


Here are more staggering statistics, courtesy of Saturday's Chattanooga Times-Free Press:

• If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet.
• If every American family wrapped just three presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
• The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high.
• If every person sent one less card, approximately 19 million pounds of paper would be saved - the equivalent of 160,000 trees.

So what can one family do about all this? The answer is simple: Recycle! Many of the things you'd throw away while cleaning up the Christmas morning mess can actually be recycled, including gift wrap (no metallic papers or bows), paper shopping bags, toy boxes, cardboard mailing boxes, cards, and envelopes.

City residents enjoy biweekly curbside recycling pickup; others can drop items off at one of Chattanooga's many recycling convenience centers. Click here for convenience center locations. Anyone can drop off their recyclables at these locations - you do not need to be a resident of Chattanooga ... or even Hamilton County! To take advantage of curbside pickup, you must be enrolled in the local recycling program. Click here to sign up, or here to check your area's recycling schedule (only enrolled homes will appear in database).

Guidelines for both curbside recycling and recycling at convenience centers are available at http://recycleright.org/. The web site also includes information about the Orange Grove Center's involvement, answers to frequently asked questions, a printable “Rocky the Recycling Raccoon” coloring page and more.

And yes, for those of you who were wondering about the photo at the top of this post, that is my post-Christmas recycling pile - tree and all - from last year. Scary, huh?

Save trees - send eCards!

Fretting because you haven't started your Christmas cards yet? Feeling frazzled at all you must do between now and Christmas? Let The Nature Conservancy take one thing off your to-do list: Send one of their beautiful nature-themed eCards! The free cards feature amazing nature photography taken by "ordinary" TNC members.

Here are two examples of the stunning photography ...

Banff, Alberta Canada

Pleneau Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.

Sending eCards is one small step toward protecting beautiful places like these. So do something different this year - save a stamp, save a tree, and send eCards!

Save money with LED lights

One quick and easy change that will save you money this Christmas - and many Christmas seasons to come - is to change your standard twinkle lights to light-emitting diode (LED) lights. LED's use 75 to 90 percent less electricity than standard incandescents, and they're 90% more efficient than their tungsten counterparts. They’re perfect for strings of holiday lights, because they don’t get hot so if you have an artifical tree it won't off gas as much and if you have a live tree it is less hazardous. And most LEDs  last 100,000 hours. They’re made with less nasty chemicals and come in all kinds of festive colors and shapes. They are now easy to find at hardware stores and most big box department stores.

Need more convincing? The U.S. Department of Energy recently posted this cost savings analysis on its blog:

Although the initial purchase price of LED light strings might higher, consider the cost of running each type of light string for 12 hours per day for 40 days:

Type of Light
Electricity Cost *

Standard C-7 (125 bulbs, 4 watts each)

$25.13

Mini incandescent lights (300 bulbs, 0.4 watts each)

$6.03

LED holiday lights (280 bulbs, 0.04 watts each)

$0.56

*Assumes an electricity price of 10.5 cents per kilowatt hour (Annual Energy Outlook 2008 Residential Average).

Learn more about the advantages of LED holiday lights on EnergySavers.gov, and visit the ENERGY STAR® site to find manufacturers and brands.

Heather Levin, author of The Greenest Dollar blog, did her own testing to prove the cost savings. "The LED lights I bought were $9, and there were 60 lights on the string," she said via her blog. "I tested them last night using my Kill A Watt and had an amazing discovery. After being left on for 12 hours, they only used .02 kilowatts of electricity. This means that, for this strand, it would take 25 days to use 1 kw of electricity. And, that’s if they were left on 24 hours a day."

What can you do with your old lights once you have converted to LEDs lights. Well, if you're really crafty, you can us them instead of ribbon when wrapping presents, but a more practical solution is to recycle them. Recycling lights is a more responsible option than sending them to Goodwill, enabling someone else to burn up the ozone. Light manufacturer Holiday LEDS is offering a recycling program - people who send in their old lights before Jan. 31, 2010, will have a chance to receive a free set of LED lights or a 10 percent discount coupon on future purchases. For more information, including recycling contest rules, visit http://www.holidayleds.com/ for the scoop.

Other links of interest:

• http://eere.typepad.com/energysavers/2008/12/tips-to-save-energy-during-the-holidays.html
• http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/10/save-money-with-led-holiday-lights/
• http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1568660,00.html
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/29/HOFKU25SP.DTL
• http://www.greendaily.com/2007/12/30/recycle-your-christmas-tree-lights/

Thanks to Keely Farris, CUMC Green Team member, for contributing this article.

A natural holiday

We'll be posting more "green holiday" tips later this week, but I wanted to share some natural decorating ideas, courtesy of the Chattanooga Nature Center. My family attended its annual "Holiday in the Woods" celebration this past weekend, and I was struck by the unique ways they turned everyday items into holiday decor.

Look twice at this wreath - it's actually a common garden hose!

Coca-Cola cans inspired this outdoor tree.

When decorating, don't forget your feathered friends! The Nature Center's outdoor trees were all adorned with wildlife-friendly "ornaments."

Orange skins doubled as bird-feeders on this tree.

Children were invited to make these birdseed ornaments - simply cover a pinecone in peanut butter, then roll in birdseed. It was messy, but the kids loved it!

I'm sure this little guy will enjoy all the natural treats!

We even saw a deer as we left!

If you've never been to the Chattanooga Nature Center, I highly recommend it! It's an inexpensive way to enjoy the great outdoors and teach children - and adults - more about wildlife conservation.